Simon Jordan reveals he is recovering from prostate cancer after ‘significant’ surgery – and former Crystal Palace chairman urges men to get tested

Former Crystal Palace chairman and renowned broadcaster Simon Jordan has revealed he is recovering from prostate cancer and has undergone surgery.

Jordan, who owned Premier League club Palace for a decade and was formerly one of football’s youngest chairmen, opened up on his health scare live on talkSPORT.

The pundit had been absent from the station for several weeks, but he bravely returned on Tuesday morning to candidly detail the reason behind his brief hiatus. 

In doing so, he also issued an impassioned plea for men to get themselves tested and admitted he was only tested after a conversation with a friend.

‘I’m recovering from cancer, I’ve had some quite significant surgery, two weeks ago for prostate cancer,’ Jordan announced during his show with Jim White. ‘As you can see I’m able to come in today but it will take some time to recover. 

‘The reason I bring it up is that I think it is an important message. 

‘If I hadn’t have had surgery, I wouldn’t be here. There’s a real issue of this about awareness. If you don’t address it with a simple test, one in eight white men and one in four men get prostate cancer. 

‘I wanted to impart the important message to get tested. I’ve sitting here with six holes in my stomach, peeing a bit of blood but I am here.’

Jordan then added: ‘What would you rather die of, embarrassment? There’s lots of people who have had this sort of situation. It is something men shouldn’t ignore. 

‘Men do need to pay attention and I didn’t enjoy the surgery but I had a top, top surgeon. I have to recover for a bit and have a number of tests going forwards.’

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men, and more than 52,000 men are diagnosed every year on average – including 143 men every day.

More to follow.